zeldafandomcom-20200223-history
Sheikah Tower
Sheikah Towers are locations from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. They emerge all over Hyrule in the beginning of the game after Link activates the first visited Great Plateau Tower during the first main quest "Follow the Sheikah Slate". They can all be climbed, some can be surrounded by enemies, and the towers that have been activated glow blue, similar to shrines. Inactive towers glow orange. There are fifteen towers. When Link activates a Sheikah Tower's Guidance Stone, the Tower's regional map becomes unveiled. History Sheikah Towers are mysterious structures built by the ancient Sheikah 10,000 years before Breath of the Wild. The towers all feature a Guidance Stone terminal and a Travel Gate. Each tower provides the Sheikah Slate with map data of the area covered by the tower. According to Impa and Kass' retellings of the legend of Calamity Ganon's defeat 10,000 years ago the Sheikah Towers were built at that time and apparently were designed by the Sheikah to aid the Hero Chosen by the Master Sword though the legend itself makes no direct reference to their function or purpose. After Calamity Ganon's defeat, the towers were eventually buried along with much of the Sheikah's technology due to the Hyrulean people's fears of its potential misuse. For 10,000 years the Towers remained inactive and buried. Unlike the Shrines and other ancient technology uncovered a century before Breath of the Wild the Royal Family of Hyrule and modern Sheikah never managed to unearthed these towers. Ironically it was the Great Calamity that uncovered the buried Great Plateau Tower and its Guidance Stone. After awaking from the Slumber of Restoration, Link is directed to "Follow the Sheikah Slate" which leads him to the Guidance Stone of the Great Plateau Tower which he activates with the Sheikah Slate. This causes a chain reaction that causes the Great Plateau Tower and other Sheikah Towers to rise up all over Hyrule. The amnesiac Link finds himself standing on top of the Great Plateau Tower which uploads map data for the Great Plateau to the Sheikah Slate and from the tower he witnesses an attempt to break Zelda's seal by Calamity Ganon who senses Link's return but Princess Zelda manages to partially restore the seal and implores Link to remember his past after briefly explaining he's been asleep for a century. Some Hyruleans noticed these towers and some even climbed up them. Purah the director of the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab took keen interest in their appearance recognizing it as a sign thus was not surprised when Link later appeared at her lab with the Sheikah Slate which he needed her expertise to repair to restore its missing components or corrupted data. As a top notch researcher, Purah quickly realized Link had activated the Great Plateau Tower using the Sheikah Slate which was intended for the chosen hero. She also explains that the Shrines are powered by the Sheikah Towers which along with them being designed to only be accessed by the chosen hero is why Zelda was unable to access the shrines with the Sheikah Slate. Zelda knew the Shrines were designed to only be accessed by the chosen hero but apparently refused to ask for his assistance in opening them which at the time was impossible as with the exception of the Shrine of Resurrection they had no power due to Sheikah Towers being buried and apparently never found. Thus in activating the Great Plateau Tower which partially activated the other towers, Link in turn restored power to the Shrines as the towers apparently provide energy as soon as they rise up. It should be noted that accessing their Guidance Stones simply restores power to their Travel Gate, grants access to their map data, and causes its color to change from orange to blue. After being activated the towers serve as both fast travel and vantage points. Some characters can be encountered atop certain towers such as Kass on Gerudo Tower who gives the Shrine Quest "Sign of the Shadow", Gruve who climbed up the Lanayru Tower to help Prince Sidon find a Hylian to assist the Zora against Vah Ruta, and Branli atop the Ridgeland Tower who runs a research study that functions as a Paraglider mini-game using the tower as a jump off point. As the towers were buried they inadvertently caused damage to the local terrain and in certain cases structures built over them such as the Akkala Citadel Ruins or a stone skull in the Military Training Camp. The Akkala Tower has a broken Guardian lying atop it as it was apparently located when it was buried while the Woodland Tower has the remains of the stone skull it destroyed as it rised up inside the Military Training Camp. However the damage caused by the Central Tower and Akkala Tower was minimal as the structures built over them had been destroyed as a result of the Great Calamity. However the Woodland Tower apparently damaged the enemy camp built over it though this would likely be seen as fortunate for Link as it damaged the monsters' fortifications at the Military Training Camp with the stone skull covering the top of the tower providing shelter from rain and thunderstorms. Rocks litter the top of the tower and occasionally have rupees or items under them while a Royal Claymore spawns atop the broken skull thus Link benefits from the destruction he inadvertently caused when it emerged following Link's activation of the Great Plateau Tower. Some towers are defended by enemies and even pools of Malice either having controlled the area before they appeared or having moved in after being attracted to the location by the towers appearance or sent by Ganon himself to prevent Link from accessing them. Some can be climbed easily while others are harder forcing Link to figure out how to scale them. Only the Great Plateau Tower must be activated as part of the story as the others are optional and can be activated in any order after leaving the Great Plateau. However all must be activated to acquire the complete map of Hyrule. After activating the Great Plateau Tower, the first tower Link climbs and accesses after this will restore the Sheikah Sensor which is a basic Rune that allows Link to detect nearby Shrines. It is best to activate a Sheikah Tower upon visiting certain areas for the first time such as the Dueling Peaks Tower during "Seek Out Impa", Hateno Tower during "Locked Mementos", Central Tower before journeying to Hyrule Castle though activating it early is advisable as its data covers most of Hyrule Field, Lanayru Tower during Link's journey to Zora's Domain, Gerudo Tower and Wasteland Tower during Link's journey to Gerudo Town preferably during "Forbidden City Entry", Eldin Tower before Link's journey to Death Mountain, Ridgeland Tower, Tabantha Tower, and Hebra Tower during Link's journey to Rito Village, Woodland Tower during Link's journey to Korok Forest to recover the Master Sword. The Faron Tower, Lake Tower, and Akkala Tower should be accessed before engaging in any side or shrine quests in the areas they cover. Akkala Tower is best to activate during either both "From the Ground Up" and/or "Robbie's Research". Map data received from each tower pertains to the area around the tower though some towers may cover nearby regions or even an entire province. The Lake Tower oddly contains the data for Faron Grasslands as the Faron Tower only covers the unnamed jungle of Faron province that overlaps with portions of east and west Necluda. Similarly Tabantha Tower covers Tabantha Frontier though Hebra Tower covers Hebra Mountains and Tabantha Tundra though Hebra Tower is located in part of Tabantha Frontier as it is on the border between Hebra Mountains and Tabantha Frontier. The Great Plateau Tower covers the Great Plateau while the Central Tower covers the Hyrule Field portion of Central Hyrule as the Ridgeland Tower covers the Hyrule Ridge region of Central Hyrule. Lanayru Tower covers a large portion of Lanayru province save for Lanayru Road and Mount Lanayru while are covered by Hateno Tower. Thus a tower's map data does not always corespond entirely to the region in which it is found due to the complexities of Hyrulean geography. Once the the data is obtained the area covered by said tower is filled in while areas covered by other towers remain blank though acquiring their data combines it with the rest of the map causing to the borders created by each segment of missing data to vanish. The map their data provides is highly detailed and feature the names of certain locations though Link must visit certain locations for their location name to appear on the map. Some named locations such as Link's House, Hateno Pasture, the Equestrian Riding Course, and Woodcutter's House receive their name from sources other than the map itself. List of the Sheikah Towers * Great Plateau Tower of the Great Plateau region of Central Hyrule * Dueling Peaks Tower of the West Necluda region located in Squabble River * Faron Tower of the unnamed jungle region of Faron province, though it is technically located in West Necluda as the jungle of Faron overlaps with certain regions of the Necluda province * Lake Tower of the Lake Hylia region though its data covers large portions of the Faron Grasslands and Faron Sea regions as the Faron province data is split between the Lake and Faron Towers * Hateno Tower of the East Necluda region along with data for Lanayru Road and Mount Lanayru * Lanayru Tower of the Lanayru province located in the Lanayru Wetlands * Akkala Tower of the Akkala province located in the Akkala Citadel Ruins in the Akkala Highlands region * Eldin Tower of the Death Mountain region * Woodland Tower of the Great Hyrule Forest region located in the Military Training Camp * Hebra Tower of the Hebra province located in the Tabantha Frontier region though contains map data for Hebra Mountains region and Tabantha Tundra. * Tabantha Tower of the Tabantha Frontier region located on Nero Hill * Gerudo Tower of the Gerudo Highlands region * Wasteland Tower of the Gerudo Desert region located on Spectacle Rock * Ridgeland Tower of the Hyrule Ridge region * Central Tower of the Central Hyrule province located in the Hyrule Garrison Ruins in the Hyrule Field region it:Torri Sheikah Category:The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild locations Category:Sheikah Towers